


Don't Die

by NightcoreFairy



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, Protective Natsu Dragneel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 05:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17359781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightcoreFairy/pseuds/NightcoreFairy
Summary: Gray wants to know what the hell is going on.Or five times Natsu was being ridiculously overprotective and one time he wasn't (not).





	Don't Die

**Author's Note:**

> So, Gratsu is great and it needs more content so I'm here to provide. I also really tried with this 5+1 Things, but I don't think it worked out...anyways, I hope you enjoy!

**1.**

It all started when they defeated Zeref.

Gray had decided that he wanted to take some time off from missions, so he could finally get the rest that he needed, yet what actually happened wasn’t what he had hoped to.

The first day after he had announced to the guild that he wanted some time off to himself, a certain pink-haired mage had started following him around whenever he was going, be it inside the guild, going home, walking to the town, _anywhere._

And just like now, as Gray was in his kitchen, about to start making dinner, he heard a knock on his door.

“Coming!”

He sighed and placed the kitchen knife that he was holding on the counter in front of him, starting to walk towards the door. He grabbed the door handle and opened it.

“What is it—“

“Hey, Gray, how ya doing? It’s a great day outside if you want to go for a walk— oh, are you preparing dinner?”

Natsu barged into his apartment and made his way towards his kitchen. He remained there perturbed, staring at the empty hall outside his apartment.

“What are you standing there for? Aren’t you going to come in, frosty?” Natsu called from the kitchen and he snapped out of his trance, slamming the door shut and making his way towards the kitchen.

He scowled when he saw Natsu picking up his apron, humming as he tied it around him and picked up the kitchen knife that he had left on the counter earlier.

“So, what are we making today?” the pink-haired mage chirped as he studied the ingredients laid on the counter.

“ _We_ aren’t making anything, _I_ was going to make stir fry vegetables until you barged into my house and decided to start making my dinner— _again_.” He retorted and stepped beside Natsu.

He outstretched his hand and beckoned him the knife, “I’m not in the mood to argue about this again, so, just give me the knife and let me prepare my own god damn dinner.”

He reached towards the knife, but it was snatched away from his reach.

“How about you sit down and I make us dinner, yeah? Cause from what I can assimilate, this kitchen knife of yours here is _extremely_ dangerous as you can clearly tell the sharpness that it has around the edges— you could easily get hurt!” Natsu explained whilst flailing his arms around in a dramatic effect.

He blinked, face scrunching up, “Oh my god, did you just say ‘assimilate’? And for the record, knives are _supposed_ to be sharp, you dumbass— you know what? Never mind, I’m too tired for this,” he ran his hand through his hair and walked away, “do whatever you want, it’s impossible to argue with you.”

Gray stepped around the kitchen table and walked to his living room, taking a seat on his couch. He folded his legs underneath himself and rested his arms on the back of the couch, observing Natsu as he cooked.

At first, this strange behavior that Natsu showed was pissing him off to no end, yet after a while, as he now watched him working in his kitchen whilst humming, he couldn’t help but wonder what was going through the pink-haired mage’s head.

* * *

**2.**

“Tell me again why you’re following me?” Gray snapped as he threw Natsu a dirty look.

The pink-haired mage tilted his head innocently, “To protect you, obviously, what else?” he stated like it was the most obvious thing ever.

“Protect me from _what_? We are literally in a _grocery_ store, Natsu!” he hissed and clicked his tongue as he watched Natsu shrug his shoulders.

He turned his back on him and grabbed a box of cereal from the shelf in front of him.

“Just keep quiet and don’t bother me if you want to come along _that_ much.” He said and started to walk away, feeling Natsu following up close behind him.

“Ay, sir!”

“Are you Happy now?!”

He grumbled as he heard Natsu snicker from behind him.

The rest of the ten minutes were surprisingly quiet as he walked through the aisles of the grocery store. When they finally walked out of the grocery store, having finished with his shopping, he headed towards his house and as he still hadn’t heard a single word being muttered from Natsu, he thought that maybe the pink-haired mage had finally understood and decided to give him a few minutes of peace—

“Gray, what are you doing? Gimme those!”

He groaned as he turned around and saw Natsu stopping in front of him, eyebrows creased in concern.

_So much for my few minutes of peace._

“What is it now— hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

Gray gaped at him as Natsu took all of the bags from his hands and started walking ahead, towards his house.

He narrowed his eyes and caught up to Natsu, grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Don’t tell me that holding my own grocery bags is dangerous, because if you do, I swear to god, Natsu, I’m—“ he started but was interrupted as Natsu jerked his hand out of his hold.

He lifted his head and his eyes widened when he saw Natsu’s face twisted in anger…and concern?

“Of course it’s dangerous! What if— what if you trip and fall on the hard pavement, huh? What if while falling down, you hit your head severely and get hurt? Y-You could get into a coma or something!” Natsu barked, glaring at him through narrowed eyes.

Then, Natsu seemed to snap out of it and his emerald eyes widened, mouth pressing in a hard line, “Forget about it.” He mumbled, lowering his head and whirled around, walking towards Gray’s house once again.

He remained there stunned, body completely frozen as he gawked at Natsu’s retreating form.

_Was he…was he actually being serious?_

How could Natsu be concerned about such a trivial thing? He hadn’t even thought that this was a possible outcome whilst going _grocery_ shopping— he was an Ice mage, after all, he could easily prevent the fall.

Didn’t Natsu know that?

For the rest of the way towards his home, Gray remained a few meters behind Natsu, all while glaring holes into the back of his head.

* * *

**3.**

“Give me back my vacuum cleaner.” Gray said firmly as he extended his arm.

“No.” Natsu replied and hugged the vacuum cleaner closer to his chest.

His eye twitched, “What is ‘no’ supposed to mean, dragon-freak? Cut the bullshit and just hand it over!” he snapped and took a step closer.

“No means no, ice-freak! You have to pry it from my cold, dead hands if you want it!”

He threw his hands in the air, “Seriously, why is it always like this with you? I just want to fucking clean my house, what the fuck is wrong with that? And if you dare, if you even _dare_ to give me one of our pitiful excuses of it being ‘dangerous’, I’m going to kick your ass _so_ hard.” He growled, face screwed up in annoyance.

“Um, you never know, like...what if,” Natsu averted his eyes, looking anywhere but him, “what if falls on you and you get hurt? They may look innocent at first, but don’t get fooled, Gray, these things are pure evil!” he exclaimed and pumped his fist into the air.

“That’s it.”

He lifted his hands and charged towards Natsu, aiming a punch to his face. Natsu let the vacuum cleaner fall on the floor, sidestepped and caught the fist with one hand, managing to flip Gray over, making him fall on his back.

He felt something press him down and lifted his gaze up, glaring at Natsu who had straddled his hips and was pinning him down with his weight, whilst grinning widely.

“As if you’d ever beat me, frosty—“ Natsu yelped as Gray managed to kick him off and tried to pin him down.

They spent the rest of the day rolling around on the floor.

* * *

**4.**

“Gray, what are you reading?”

Gray groaned as Natsu poked his sides for the sixth time in the last hour.

“Will you _please_ leave me the fuck alone? I want to read in peace.” He said and went back to reading his book, or at least _tried_ to, but Natsu wasn’t making it easy for him.

“But I don’t have anything to do in here and instead of doing something with me, you’re reading your damn book.” Natsu whined and rolled around in the ground.

“Well, you could always go to the guild or take a mission, you know, it’s not like you’re locked in here —you just decided to remain here, so deal with it— and stop whining, it’s distracting me!” he huffed and turned around on the bed, his back facing Natsu who was still on the ground.

“Graaay, pay attention to me, I feel lonely.”

Gray closed his eyes, clicking his tongue in frustration and went to turn a page. He slightly cursed as pain erupted from his thumb and opened his eyes, staring at the small drop of blood that was coming out of his thumb on his right hand.

“Great, exactly what I needed right now— oh shit!” He cursed as a hand grabbed his shoulder and turned him around, pinning him down onto the bed.

“What do you think you’re doing, Natsu?!” he barked and stared at the boy above him in confusion as he stared at his injured thumb.

_Why is he glaring at my thumb like he wants to burn it?_

He yelped as Natsu grabbed his hand and jerked it towards him. Before he could say or do anything, warm lips were wrapped around his injured thumb.

His breath hitched in his throat, chest tightening and breath coming out shorter. A shiver traveled down his spine as Natsu lapped his tongue over his thumb, sucking on it.

“Natsu, what…” He breathed and felt his face heating up as Natsu lifted his eyes, staring at him with a dazed expression.

Then, without a single word, Natsu got off the bed and walked away from the room, leaving him alone and breathless on the bed.

_What the fuck was that?_

He panted and ran his left hand through his hair, staring at the ceiling. He lifted his right hand and frowned when he realized that the cut on his thumb was barely even visible.

“Give me your hand.”

His eyes snapped up, being caught by surprise as he hadn’t heard Natsu coming in.

“W-What?” he stuttered, staring at the pink-haired mage in suspicion.

Natsu sighed and extended his hand, “Could you give me your hand, please?” he softly murmured.

Gray’s eyes widened at the spoken words and silently held up his hand. Natsu took his outstretched hand into his own and gently brushed his thumb over Gray’s knuckles before taking out a bandage, which he wrapped around his thumb.

“There, all better!” he grinned and patted his hand before letting it go.

He stared down at the small bandage around his thumb and blushed, “What the fuck am I, a child?” he grumbled.

“Oh, shit, I forgot something— be right back.”

As soon as Natsu left the room again, he buried his face into his hands and softly cursed.

* * *

**5.**

Gray groaned as he heard a faint knock coming from his door. He grabbed the covers and pulled them over his head, blocking out any source of light, and hopefully, sound too. When he woke up an hour ago, he wasn’t feeling well; he had a severe headache and felt extremely exhausted —he could have sworn that when he tried to move, he heard his bones creak— so, he was pretty sure that he was running down with a fever, which was absolutely perfect.

Oh and he was also freezing, which was a huge irony considering he was an Ice mage.

“Oh, Graaaaay! Open up before I break down your door!”

He heard Natsu’s muffled shout and whined as his head started to throb even more. Surprisingly, after that there was complete silence; he couldn’t hear knocking on the door nor could he hear Natsu’s annoying screaming. He sighed, content, as he thought that the pink-haired mage had given up and walked away.

Then, he cursed as he heard a loud cracking sound, something like an explosion coming from his living room.

“What the fuck…” he said hoarsely and in an instant, his covers were being pulled away, blinding light sipping in.

He whined and blindly reached around for the covers as he had closed his eyes in order to prevent from the light to blind him.

“My blanket, give me back my fucking blanket,” he croaked out and immediately after he felt the covers come back over him.

He let out a sigh as he felt warm lips on his forehead.

“Dammit, you’re running down with a fever, you just stay here and I’m going to come back with some antipyretics.” Natsu softly said.

He almost whined as the warm lips left his forehead and instead weakly snorted, “Yeah, like I can go anywhere, dumbass.”

“Just shut up and let me take care of you, idiot.” Natsu chuckled and left the room.

He felt his heartbeat spiking up, thumbing loud against his ears.

_Why the fuck am I acting like this? He just did that to see if I had a fever._

He heard Natsu come back into the room, placing something beside him on the nightstand. Then, his covers were slightly pulled down and felt a hand touching his arm.

“Come on, Gray, you have to get up, just for a few seconds to take your antipyretic.” Natsu said and gently pulled him upwards, making him sit on the bed.

He squinted his eyes and blinked several times before he got used to the light and glanced to his right, where Natsu was sitting with a small smile on his face.

“Hey there tough guy.”

“Don’t…call me that.”

Natsu hummed and reached behind him, taking a glass of water and a pill. Gray took the pill and the glass of water with slightly trembling hands. He placed the pill in his mouth and tried to bring the glass of water on his lips without spilling it.

He frowned as he couldn’t seem to keep his hand steady and then felt another hand cover his own and another was placed to the back of his head. Natsu guided the glass onto his lips and slightly tipped his head back, helping him drink the water. As he finally swallowed the pill, Natsu took away the glass of water and he laid back down on the bed, more exhausted than ever.

He heard more shuffling going around but he was too tired to turn around and see what was happening, but at some point, he did feel like the space of the bed was getting smaller.

“Natsu, what…what are you doing?” He croaked as he slightly extended his arm forward and immediately felt a pillow.

“I’m making a nest! It’s gonna be great, trust me.” Natsu beamed and continued on with his work.

After a few moments, the shuffling stopped and immediately afterwards, he felt a warm chest press up behind him, an arm was being placed over his waist, keeping him close.

“N-Natsu, what are you—“ he stuttered, felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest any second now.

“Shh, you focus on going back to sleep, okay?”

Natsu breathed against his neck and felt a shiver run down his spine.

Then, warm fingers threaded through his hair, slowly massaging his scalp. He let out a long, shaky breath and closed his eyes, fading away into a blissful sleep.

* * *

**+1**

Gray had been in the local market when the attack came.

There was some random low-level magician who had started causing a ruckus around and immediately, he had jumped into action, magic dancing around his hands, ready to defeat the attacker.

It was slightly harder than usual because there were civilians running panicked all around him, so he couldn’t go all out and had to hold back in order not to hurt anyone else, but at some point, he made the mistake of looking away from his enemy, instinct telling him to check if anyone was hurt, and for that, he got knocked back and as he landed, he hit his head on a hard surface.

The last thing he saw before slipping away into the darkness was red.

The next time Gray woke up, he felt like his head was going to explode. He groaned and clutched his head as he tried to sit up. He slowly opened his eyes and glanced around, taking in the familiar place.

_How did I end up at my house…?_

He heard a choked sob and his head snapped to the right, eyes widening as they fell upon the curled up form of Natsu in the corner of the room.

“Natsu…?”

He got up and started walking towards the pink-haired mage. He stopped in front of him and kneeled down, staring at him anxiously.

What had happened while he was unconscious? Had someone managed to defeat that guy he was previously fighting? And why was Natsu curled up like this in his room? Was he hurt?

He reached forward and grabbed Natsu’s arm, pulling it away from his face. His eyes widened as he saw that Natsu’s eyes were red and puffy, dried tears stained his cheeks, face scrunched up in sadness.

“Natsu, what’s wrong—“

He cursed as Natsu suddenly pounced on him, wrapping his arms around him, making him fall on the floor. His vision blurred as he hit his head again and gripped Natsu’s shirt on his back.

“What the fuck was that for, dragon—“ he trailed off as he heard sobs coming from the boy above him, “freak…”

He stopped gripping him and instead wrapped his own arms around Natsu’s back, holding him close as he laid his head back on the floor and stared at the ceiling. Gray didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but he waited patiently until Natsu was calm enough, whilst rubbing his back in soothing circles.

“A-As soon as I heard the commotion going off, I r-ran as fast as I could, because I knew that you were there, in the local market, but I wasn’t f-fast enough,” Natsu sniffed, voice muffled as he spoke against his chest, “I never should have left you to go alone, goddammit! And when I finally arrived, I saw you l-lying on the ground, completely n-nonresponding and I thought that…f-fuck, I thought that you were _dead_ and the only thing I could see was red. I was so worried, so damn worried about you, Gray…”

He withdrew his arms from around Natsu’s back and brought them up, gently taking his face into his hands. He smiled as he gazed into those shiny emerald eyes and slightly pulled Natsu’s face forward, placing his forehead against his.

“You know, sometimes you are such an idiot,” he softly whispered, “but you are my idiot.”

He leaned in and gently connected his lips with Natsu’s, his right thumb caressing the pink-haired boy’s cheek. After a few seconds, he pulled apart and looked into Natsu’s shocked eyes.

“How much longer were you planning on letting me wait if I hadn’t made the first move?” he teased.

“Hey! I didn’t even know if you liked me, okay? I couldn’t just walk up to you and kiss you.” Natsu pouted and averted his eyes.

He chuckled, “Well, now you know.”

He leaned forward again and pecked him on the lips. He moved his lips upwards, placing soft kisses on his cheeks, nose, and forehead.

“I love you, you big dummy,” he whispered against Natsu’s forehead.

“Love you too, Gray…”


End file.
